I woke up hung over. I’d obviously drank too much last night. My head still buzzed, unpleasantly.

The sound of my alarm clock beeping rattled the inside of my head, and blindingly bright sunlight streamed through my bedroom window and directly into my face. I groaned.

I went to roll over, to get the light out of my eyes. I wanted to hit the snooze button on that damn beeping noise and maybe go back to sleep for a while. But as I moved, I seemed to be tangled in my sheets, which somehow had become wrapped around me. I tried to cover my eyes… but neither arm moved, which was strange. I tried to sit up, to turn my head, but my body, arms, and head all remained stubbornly immobile.

Something wasn’t right. I blinked against the glare.

And, as my heart beat faster, in time with the rhythmic beeping noise, I realized the light wasn’t coming from my window at all, but from a huge lamp above me. A lamp mounted on some sort of articulated arm. The sort of lamp and arm that operating rooms used. I didn’t have one of those in my bedroom…

My memories rushed back. I wasn’t in my bed. I wasn’t in my bedroom. I was in Dr. Hannah’s office, lying on my back, in her frightening dental chair. And I was clearly restrained to it; what I’d taken as my sheets were blankets wrapped tightly around me, and wide leather straps around my ankles, wrists, and head.

A hissing mask covered my nose, which explained why the room seemed fuzzy and distant. Indistinct figures moved around me, masked blurs against the bright light.

“They’re starting to wake up,” an unfamiliar voice reported. I tried to look around, to try to comprehend my surroundings, but it was only bright lights and dizziness. The nasal mask and some sort of head strap made it so I couldn’t even move my head.

“Let’s not have any more drama,” Dr. Hannah loomed above me suddenly, her masked face blurry but her voice recognizable. “Turn the nitrous up while we finish getting ready.”

Even through the haze of whatever gas was filling my nose, I didn’t like the sound of that. I thrashed against the restraints, against the chair, trying to find some weakness or way out. But I was held completely immobile, nearly supine, with my arms by my sides. I tried to talk, to demand they let me go, but my brain felt like it was filled with water, and it was hard to concentrate on what I was trying to say. Mostly only moans came out.

One of the blurry figures leaned in close, slowly resolving into a strange woman wearing a white mask. A blue surgical gown and cap covered most of her other features. I felt her latex glove prod my mouth open, and tasted rubber as she jammed a block between my left molars.

My head felt like it was filling with thicker, fuzzy syrup, and it was increasingly hard to follow what was going on. Time was passing. Figures were moving around the room, but I couldn’t see them or what they were doing. I could hear beeps of equipment and the hiss of the nasal mask was awfully loud. Maybe seconds later, maybe minutes, maybe hours later, I heard Dr. Hannah’s voice. I realized she was talking to me….

“We’re going to send you back under and get started. Let’s have no struggling this time.” I got the sense that she was amused.

I felt something cold in my arm. I must have already had an IV drip; yes, there was a bag of clear liquid hanging above me. I knew I was being injected with something to make me sleep. Maybe it was my helplessness, or whatever I was breathing, but I began to accept that I was going to be going back under anesthesia, and probably very soon. I wondered if the dentist had been right, and that this would have been easier if I’d just submitted to her in the first place.

One of the masked figures leaned into my sight-line. “Time for a nice, long nap. We have a lot of work to do, you’re going to sleep the whole time,” the nurse reassured. “You won’t feel a thing,” her voice echoed, disappearing into the blurry room, lost in the bright lights and the gas.

I didn’t even know who she even was, and didn’t know what they were planning to do to me. I didn’t like any of this. But I could feel the drugs that were being injecting were already taking effect. The fuzziness I’d been feeling rapidly increased, and my face began to tingle. The overwhelming bright room was dimming now, quickly.

Much faster than when Dr. Hannah had jumped me with a gas mask, the room started collapsing in on me. My last memory was another gowned figure appearing, looming over me with a breathing tube in one hand. They seemed to be waiting for me to fall asleep. There was nothing I could do. My heavy eyelids closed.

I couldn’t see anything anymore, except blackness. I couldn’t fight the overwhelming anesthetic, and in just a few seconds, I wasn’t thinking anything anymore, either. Sudden oblivion, leaving me completely at Dr. Hannah’s mercy.